To reread: Schmemann, For the Life of the World

Chapter 14 is on Theology of Patristic Renewal: Zizioulas and Romanides

On Zizioulas:
the author acknowledges the importance of his input, but he also strongly highlights the ambiguities of his doctrine.

On Romanides:
NB: Romanides “is opposed to an Anselmian doctrine of the atonement” (p.227).
“his position [in his doctrinal dissertation] can be seen pre-eminently as an example of the kind of neo-patristic synthesis that Florovsky regarded as the only future for Orthodox theology”, (p.227)

“For Fr Romanides, theology is not about concepts, but about experience…
What is wrong with Anselm’s idea of faith seeking understanding [fides quaerens intellectum] is that this seems to Romanides a complete digression. Faith seeks God, and finds fulfilment in an experience of God, of union with him. Romanides is fully behind St Gregory Palamas and his defence of the hesychasts, for in that defence Palamas was defending the experience of the hesychast monks. Theology is about unfolding something of that experience, and its importance lies in helping others to come to that experience of God and union with him. More starkly, perhaps, than any other Orthodox academic theologian, he lays emphasis on the importance of experience of God, an experience to which the dogmas of the faith direct us.” (p.228)